On the night of May 5, 1993, I entered into a nightmare from which I have not yet awakened. I had dinner that evening at a small Rio Rancho, New Mexico diner with two friends with whom I also shared a home and office, Father Michael Mack and Father Clyde Landry. I wrote of them once, and of the chasm of loss brought about by their sudden absence from my imprisoned life, in “The Holy Longing: An All Souls Day Spark for Broken Hearts.”

Minutes after arriving at home on that evening nearly 23 years ago, the doorbell rang. I opened it to see two Rio Rancho police officers standing there. “We’re looking for a Gordon J. MacRae,” one said. “I am he,” I replied. “Please turn and face the wall,” said one of the officers as he placed me in handcuffs to escort me to his cruiser.

That scene, and the ones to follow that night, have replayed in my mind a thousand times since then. I was driven to the Rio Rancho Police Headquarters where Detective Arlan Norby showed me a warrant for my arrest issued weeks earlier 2,000 miles away in Keene, New Hampshire. The warrant described that I stand accused of numerous charges of sexual assault upon two adolescent males alleged to have occurred a dozen years earlier. It listed their identities only as “T.G.” and “J.G.” and I had no idea who they were.

It did not take long for the true nature of the case to surface. Detective Arlan Norby told me that he had numerous telephone conversations with Keene, NH, Detective Jim McLaughlin who was investigating these claims, and added, “This is all because your church has not been handling these cases very well.” From that moment on, I knew this would not be a simple case of truth and justice, and I was right. I was not to be the one on trial.

Within three days, I was released from custody on a personal recognizance bond ordered by a New Mexico judge, and the long, slow process of obtaining information on the case against me began. It was weeks before I learned the identities of “T.G.” and “J.G.” and when I did, I had not thought it possible. I remembered Thomas Grover and his brother, Jonathan, two Native American young men who, years earlier, had been adopted in the Keene area by Patricia and Elmer Grover who divorced after adopting eight multi-racial children. Theirs was not an easy life, but it seemed they found an easy repository for their life’s woes – that and a road to easy money.

Thomas Grover, then age 27, had a criminal record of his own for fraud, forgery, theft, and drug charges, and had pending domestic violence and assault charges. His brother, Jonathan Grover, then age 25, had been discharged from the U.S. Navy after a drunk driving arrest. Jonathan Grover had by then also accused another priest. I could not fathom then how or why these brothers would concoct such a scheme, but the rest of this story – at least, the parts we know, for there are still mysteries yet to be uncovered here – has since been published by writers like Dorothy Rabinowitz and Ryan MacDonald whose summary you may read for yourself at “Part II: The Trial” under “Case History” at These Stone Walls.

It took a full 18 months, and the refusal of numerous lenient plea deal offers, before the case was scheduled for trial. At one point, in a highly unusual development, the prosecution requested a six-month delay because the principal accuser, Thomas Grover, had become uncooperative. It was later learned that he rebelled because he was told that I refused a one-year plea deal. He had apparently been assured that there would be no trial and he could just move on to the money.

It was an irony that I had not fully considered at the time, but I had been living in New Mexico for the previous five years because I was working in ministry as Director of Admissions for the Servants of the Paraclete center for priests. Over the previous two years, the center had become notorious in both local and national news media – including “60 Minutes” which did a shameless, one-sided “gotcha” segment over the treatment of Father James Porter some twenty-five years previously, a case that was ever in the background of my trial.

Thomas and Jonathan Grover’s older brother, David, was actually the first to accuse. A police report documented that he heard on his truck radio about eighty blanket settlements in the notorious “Father Porter” case by the Diocese of Fall River in neighboring Massachusetts in 1993, and had to pull over as a flood of repressed memories of abuse suddenly emerged.

David Grover was the first to attempt the scam, claiming that he was molested by me at my parish at age twelve. It somehow became known that I was never there until two weeks before he turned 18 and joined the U.S. Army, so the process of charging me with even a semblance of possibility fell to his two younger brothers. Blatant lies are no obstacle to settlement, however. My diocese still settled with David Grover for $185,000.

THE WHITE BRONCO

I had to take a leave from my ministry with the Servants of the Paraclete center as I awaited trial, but the superiors of the Order in New Mexico asked me to remain with them throughout my ordeal. It was a courageous gesture of mercy and support for which I have only gratitude, even after all these years.

It was while living with that community that I walked into our common room on June 17, 1994, to see the now famous televised spectacle of a white Ford Bronco being pursued at low speed on a Los Angeles freeway by a dozen police vehicles and TV news helicopters. Ever since then, the case of O.J. Simpson seems in my memory to be the backdrop against which my own nightmare played out.

As I prepared for trial, however, there was no evidence to review beyond Thomas Grover’s own wild claims. So my trial, from jury selection to conviction, was over in two weeks. I was pronounced guilty and sent to prison on September 23, 1994.

The O.J. Simpson trial, by contrast, stretched on for a year, dominating the background of my entire first year in prison. It was all other, prisoners ever talked about. Because the trial was televised, it seemed the only thing every prisoner watched. I did not have a television then, but I was crammed into a cell with seven other men, and had a daily diet of the O.J. trial whether I wanted it or not.

“IF THE GLOVES DON’T FIT, YOU MUST ACQUIT.”

Thanks to television, the entire nation had a front row seat to the rare drama of “The O.J. Trial.” The spectacle included the opening statements of L.A. prosecutors Marcia Clark and Christopher Darden on January 24, 1995; the theatrical opening statement of defense attorney Johnny Cochran the next day, and some famous names among lawyers as F. Lee Bailey, Barry Scheck, and Robert Shapiro joined him in O.J.’s million dollar defense.

In the year-long spectacle, we heard L.A. Detective Mark Fuhrman grilled by defense attorney F. Lee Bailey for his suspected history of racist remarks only to later assert his Fifth Amendment right to refuse questions after tapes were played in open court. Then Attorney Robert Shapiro cross-examined Detective Vanatter about statements he allegedly made to mob informants that shed light on why the L.A. police went to the home of O.J. Simpson in the early days of the case.

We witnessed the heavily hyped scene of O.J. trying on the gloves obtained as prosecutorial evidence resulting in Johnny Cochran’s most famous sound bite to emerge from this trial “If the gloves don’t fit, you must acquit.” And we saw all of this entirely eclipse a mountain of physical and scientific forensic evidence against O.J. Simpson, including DNA evidence.

But none of it mattered. None of it could defeat the theatrics. On October 2, 1995, after a trial that presented mountainous evidence over the course of an entire year, that sequestered jury reached a verdict in just four hours. It was one of the most watched moments in American television history.

On October 2, 1995, from my prison cell, having served a year in prison with just sixty-six left to go for crimes for which there was no evidence at all, I heard the O.J. verdict: “not guilty” on both counts of murder.

NOW COMES MARCIA CLARK

Perhaps the only comparable case was another that played out while I was in prison, and it was another for which I could not help but compare notes. I wrote of that one as well in “Michael Jackson and the Credible Standard” which I took on after I received a drubbing from some staunch Michael Jackson fans who defended him. I’ll receive no drubbing for this one. O.J.’s jurors seem to be his only fans left.

So why do I write of this at all? For two reasons, the second of which I’ll get to below. Three years after the O.J. Trial ended, with me still in prison, I received a letter from the studios of Mark Phillips Films and Television in Los Angeles. Here’s the entire letter dated January 15, 1998:

“Dear Father MacRae: I work for former Los Angeles prosecutor Marcia Clark. She is doing a primetime special for FOX Broadcasting Network which will air at 9:00 PM on Monday, February 16, 1998. Through the National Justice Committee I heard about your story. I talked with Mark Phillips, the Executive Producer of the show, about your case. He in turn talked with the executives at FOX about profiling your story on our special, and they want to feature your story on our show.

“Basically what we are doing in this one-hour, one-on-one interview show with Marcia Clark is to send her wherever the story is. She would do a sit-down interview with you. The interview would end with you taking a polygraph test. I understand you have taken several polygraphs in this case, and have passed them.

“We want to profile your story in a more positive light. It is obvious to us that an injustice has occurred in your case, and through profiling your story we want to get the word out that justice has not been served, and that there is an innocent man sitting in prison who should be free. By getting your story out, people will think twice about blindly accepting charges brought by one person against another person in your situation.” (Letter of January 15, 1998 from Mark Phillips Films & Television)

I accepted Marcia Clark’s invitation immediately, though I added that my accusers should also cooperate with polygraph (lie detector) tests. This had been proposed a number of times, but none of my accusers or their attorneys would even acknowledge similar invitations to take a polygraph or respond to questions. When a former FBI agent investigating the case found and approached accuser Thomas Grover at the Hualapai Tribal Reservation in Arizona where he is hiding, all he would say is “I want a lawyer.”

But to make a long story shorter, the 1998 Marcia Clark program was a dead end. Prison officials blocked the plan and would not allow FOX to conduct an on-camera interview, nor would they allow the polygraph expert to test me. Fox executives sent an appeal to then Governor Jeanne Shaheen (now U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH) who responded in a letter dated January 31, 1998:

“I understand your company’s interest in an on-camera interview with Gordon J MacRae, who is currently an inmate in the New Hampshire State Prison, however I will not intervene in the decision not to allow media access to Mr. MacRae.”

So the Constitution, the First Amendment, and Freedom of the Press all took a back seat to some hidden agenda. The interest of Marcia Clark, however, is the real reason I am writing of this today. Perhaps the overture would have been different after the fall of the priesthood in the revelations of 2002 and 2003 which managed to squash all other media courage – except that of Dorothy Rabinowitz and The Wall Street Journal – in seeing both sides of this story.

In the trial of O.J. Simpson, Marcia Clark saw justice fail in a very big way as a prosecutor trying to bring justice to two murdered victims in Los Angeles. Just three years later, for her to even attempt to bring justice to another high profile story when the rest of the media world was just spitting on it is, for me, a sign of real courage and integrity that is sorely lacking in most of the news media.

But there is a second reason I am writing this account. On Tuesday, February 2, 2016 at 10:00 PM (Eastern Standard Time), the FX cable television network will commence American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson, a dramatic presentation of the Trial of O.J. Simpson that will run weekly until early April. The series is built upon a factual publication of CNN Legal Analyst Jeffrey Toobin entitled, The Run of His Life. It’s a serious effort with an impressive cast including Academy Award-winning actor Cuba Gooding, Jr. as O.J. Simpson, Sarah Paulson as prosecutor Marcia Clark, and John Travolta, Nathan Lane, and Courtney B. Vance as defense attorneys Robert Shapiro, F. Lee Bailey, and Johnny Cochran respectively.

Executive Producer Nina Jacobson promises that “looking back at O.J. helps us understand the world we live in now – 20 years later.” Well, Nina, the world I live in now 20 years later makes me want to turn the channel and run for cover. Justice is not served, then or now.

So my first thought was that I’d rather have a root canal than relive the O.J. Trial! But in a saner, quieter moment, I came to the only conclusion possible. How could I NOT watch? Maybe someone else in the media will catch the example of the likes of Marcia Clark and Dorothy Rabinowitz and grow a spinal column.

So, for those who haven’t yet smashed their TV, is there any interest out there in joining me at FX on Tuesday nights at 10:00? We are, after all, safer in packs!

About Fr. Gordon J. MacRae

The late Cardinal Avery Dulles and The Rev. Richard John Neuhaus encouraged Father MacRae to write. Cardinal Dulles wrote in 2005: “Someday your story and that of your fellow sufferers will come to light and will be instrumental in a reform. Your writing, which is clear, eloquent, and spiritually sound will be a monument to your trials.” READ MORE

Comments

Like Helen, I got to see the first installment of American Crime Story last night. Having been tried parallel to the O.J. Simpson story I am very interested in the presentation because it is an open window onto the American injustice system. What really struck me, and I had never considered it before, was how much the Rodney King story two years earlier drove how O.J. was treated. From day one he was coddled as a victim, with lots of political correctness, seemingly by all except Marcia Clark. I was tried on the heels of the explosive case of Father James Porter in New England. Many people commented that during my trial they heard the name of Father Porter more often than they heard my own name. Just prior to my trial the Diocese of Fall River, MA, under the leadership of then Bishop Sean O’Malley entered into mediated settlements with 80 accusers of Father Porter. That launched the campaign against U.S. Catholic priests.

UGH…….Father Gordon… I saw the first edition of O.J., last night. Oh. How money and position count as our innocence. If we are just mediocre in the financial sector, then, we are guilty…unless there is a certain racial prejudice.

I did have a very hard time watching. It actually made me feel ill to my stomach. I don’t know if I can get thru nine more episodes. Yet, I want to see it because I want to discover some truth, therein.

The first part of the series had me wanting, all the more, to find ways to get justice for you. I don’t know how to do that. Thank God for God…HE IS OUR ANSWER. So, I’m clinging to Him even more. He IS MERCY Itself…and we NEED Him.

God bless you…and I hope you were able to see the series, last night, with some semblance of good health. (Oh. By the way, puleeeeze be careful and don’t over-do. You need to heal… even tho, thus far, YOU are an ‘all out’ MIRACLE.

This is very powerful writing. Your description of what happened to you in comparison to the O.J. Simpson trial is explosive. Or it should be if the right people were reading and listening. I started reading this blog when you wrote about Cardinal Law, a few months ago. I thought he was a villain until I read your words. Now I see the truth of it. I feel deep shame and disgust for the people who did this to you. When reading your posts, I always have to remind myself that you are writing from inside a prison. Your courage is like a beacon of light in a time when truth and courage are rare commodities.

Father MacRae, you are a most captivating and compelling writer. When I received this post in my inbox, I nearly deleted it because I had no interest in the o j Simpson story. That would have been a big mistake. This is very different in tone and substance from most of your posts, but I found myself hanging upon your every word. I am now resolved to watch the O. J. Simpson trial. The injustice that you brought to the surface here is shocking for any American with any faith left in our justice system. Once again you have opened our eyes.

God Bless & keep you Fr. G.! Prayers for a rapid recovery from your Surgery. Am not online much or to often now, but, you, your Selfless Family of workers, Max, Fr. David, Charlene, Suzanne.., ALL of THIS Blessed Family, That Our Father has gathered around you, are always in our prayers!
You have no idea of the HOPE I’ve been given, just by being a tiny part of such an Eclectic Family! Another Paradox of sorts. A Microcosm of what this World COULD BE LIKE, with Christ at the Center!!

Father Gordon, since I won’t have access to the Tuesday TV evening program, I’ll join you and others in spirit. I pray that the injustice you have been involved so far is once and for all corrected. We know eventually it will but it seems fitting here to remember Luke 20:19: “By patient endurance you will sabe your lives”.

Thank you, Juan. I wondered whether people in Spain had a popular awareness of the O.J. story. I know you cannot follow it in the upcoming series, but some of it might be available online.
With thanks and blessings to you always, Father Gordon.

Hi Father Gordon!
I still have faith that the truth will be revealed in some way to those who need to see it.We have all had it revealed to us, here who follow you and through our sharing it can be spread to others. God doesn’t abandon only those that have turned their back on Him and His mercy.Sending love and prayers! Jeannie

Thank you, Jeannie. I am always glad to hear from you though I seldom get to reply to comments. Right now I am putting Charlene’s poor fingers to the test as she patiently types these replies for me via telephone. It is the sharing that I count on. Please help me spread this story where it needs to go as I already know you do.
With thanks and blessings,
Father Gordon

Father Gordon… I read this…and come back and re-read it, and I’m no more convinced, now, that someone will come to your aid…whether they want to or not. Evil surely seems to be winning against God’s chosen, especially YOU. (However, please don’t think I believe, EVER, that evil will win, in the end)! Even those who want to help you and your case seem to run up against a stone wall. (No pun).

I hate to say that I am becoming sooooooo frustrated. I don’t think I’ve EVER wanted to help someone reach justice more than I do for you. However, the focus is how depleted you must feel, at times, because, after all, YOU are the one who is living this nightmare.

I wonder if we all, the readers herein, bombarded the justice departments with pleas for justice for you, if that would have any impact, whatsoever. Or, would that make things even worse? There’s no doubt, at all, that the Creator of Justice is being bombarded. He is our hope.

Father Gordon, I need to say this; in all my years of life, I have NEVER met ANYONE who has the faith that you have…and… builds the faith of others by sharing what you are living out in that prison. That, in itself, is a miracle, not unlike that of St Paul who was a frequent occupant of prison, for the greater glory of God. I DO hope that Truth comforts you, the realizing that GOD ALMIGHTY, CREATOR OF ALL GOOD..AND WHO IS GOODNESS, ITSELF, is using you as an instrument of His will.
We may not see it now. We sit on the sidelines watching the parade, a section at a time, while He sees the whole parade.

YOU own a part of my heart, Father Gordon, and I am so graced by God; privileged to ‘know ‘ you and, daily, continue to pray for you and all of God’s holy, falsely accused sons. As long as there is a God…may we NEVER give up the hope that YOU WILL BE FREED! GLORY TO GOD.

Thank you, Helen. Those words mean a lot to me. The truth does comfort me. What I hope and pray for is that it also comforts you and other readers of TSW. Catholics in America has been cheated and demoralized with only one side of this story. God has given me a venue for writing the other side even when most in the media look the other way – even most in the Church! It is up to us to spread that truth and I know you help to do that. I am so very proud of you and all our readers.
With blessings, Father Gordon.

The Justice System is a wreck that needs to be fixed. Are there any good souls out there that are capable and willing to do it? The politicians need to be fixed too – greedy, self-seeking glory-seekers. Aren’t there any decent souls out there ready to serve the people?

Hi Father G
It is a while since I’ve commented but there was something diffferent in the tone of this post. It is as if you are now seeing the past with the mind of Christ seeing the duplicity and lies with a resigned recognition of the weakness of man.
In my prayers
M

Thank you, M. Others have mentioned to me the change in tone in this post. I guess I cannot always be warm and fuzzy! The O.J. story ran parallel to my own and so it has a sort of special meaning. Those who watch the coming series will get a solid dose of just how unjust justice can be.
With thanks and blessings, Father Gordon.

As a subscriber to TSW, I get the notifications of your new postings, and always read them, though I rarely comment, not knowing what to say, though I probably should at least let you know I am reading and pray for you, and the men you write about. This post has prompted me to do so.

Sometimes, I am brought to tears by the beauty of what you write, the wonder at the great good that Our Lord is bringing about through the evil that you have been forced to endure (the conversion of Pornchai, etc.), and sometimes, I am brought to tears over the injustice. And sometimes, I am brought to an intense anger, as with this post. Anger at your accusers, at the Church leaders who have allowed the environment to develop that led to your situation, at our so called ‘Justice’ system…. This post so clearly reveals our system is beyond corrupt. That the guilty walk free and the innocent are railroaded. It is mind boggling to me that what has happened to you could happen in anything other than a bad Hollywood script. Yet it has. It should frighten and anger us all. Righteous anger.

To top it off, this weeks revelation that not Planned Parenthood executives and abortionists who have profited greatly from the butchering and criminal sale of innocent unborn children will be prosecuted, but the brave young people who have risked much to expose the savagery of Planned Parenthood are being persecuted and prosecuted instead. It is almost more than I can stand. Our judicial system (and political with the role Shaheen played in your case, and the atrocious PP) is a wreck. I am so sorry you are paying so dearly for it.

I don’t know what else to say, other than God bless you, Father. I pray your persecutors repent, from the accusers to the prosecutors, judges, former governors, abandoning clergy….all of them, and that you will have justice at last.

Thank you for your beautiful writings and witness.

“Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake: Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven.”

Thank you, Pamela. Your words mean a great deal to me. There is no good writing without good readers. The U.S. justice system is very broken, and I think people are beginning to come around to that truth. As for Planned Parenthood, I hope you will find and read my post, “Planned Parenthood: An American Horror Story.” That horror story continued in Texas last week. For us, we must go the distance.
With thanks and blessings, Father Gordon.

Thank you, Liz. That is what I said, but I don’t consciously remember writing it when I wrote this post. When I got a copy of the post in the mail yesterday, that phrase, “I am he” struck me the same way it struck you.
With thanks and blessings,
Father G

Even before I read your last paragraph, I went to my Calendar and noted the time (7pm Pacific Time) of the warmed over OJ story, even though I was literally sick when the verdict was read. Like the moment the TV’s blared the news of assassination of JFK, I remember exactly where I stood, my emotion and the smirk on OJ’s face when the jury found him not guilty. That miscarriage of justice is only understood in the many miscarriages of justice toward blacks, in the pre-civil rights evils era, the miscarriage of justice in your case, and that of all imprisoned innocents. As someone else posted, I place much of the blame, for accused but innocent priests, on the bishops who abandoned them. . But, again, one evil does not amend for even one evil, let alone multiple evils. All this, in very strange election year politics makes it hard to remain positive about the future.

But, our God is greater than all this – and in Him we place our trust. This quote from Bertrand Russell,
“I do not think that evil can be cured by blind hatred of their perpetrators. This will only lead us to become like them. Although the effort is not easy, one should attempt….to understand the circumstances that turn men into fiends, and to realize that it is not by blind rage that evils will be prevented.”
This is a hard saying. but true. .

Yes, Kirk, we captured the face of O.J. just as the verdict was read at the very end of this post. It speaks volumes about the state of the justice system in America. Your quote is excellent and I am proud to have it on These Stone Walls.
With blessings, Father Gordon.

I often wondered why the same sense of outrage over OJ’s aquittal was never displayed over the wrongful incarceration of thousands of African American males. I often wonder if the race of his deceased wife played a part.I watched the documentary “14 days in May” as a teenager, living in England, and was absolutely gobsmacked at the US justice system. But Father Gordon’s case , even in light of all that I have come to learn about justice in the US, remains unfathomable to me. I just cant comprehend it. I come to this site always hoping and expecting to see a post about his imminent release. I will continue to wait patiently, that day will surely come.

A good article, Father. After losing two people of my aquaintances to the death chamber in Texas I have no great regard for the justice system…but nothing compares to my hatred of the bishops who have destroyed lives of their priests…possibly because they are spineless cowards…but also because in some cases they are guilty of the acts innocent priests are accused of.

I can understand your anger and you frustration with the ones who are cowardly, but please don’t hate them. When I read about such things it really makes me very angry, but I know that I must pray for the conversion of such people. Monday was the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. He was pretty awful before he converted. For the good of the church please pray for them! (p.s. I’m sorry for the loss of the two people who died that you knew. I will pray for their souls.)

Josee Allen… I am so very sorry for your loss. May they rest in the peace and joy of the Lord.

God bless you, Josee. What torment you are going thru. I will lift you in prayer asking for deliverance of the hatred that you are experiencing. It does no good to hate but I understand. Father Gordon would NEVER want anyone to hate because of his story. I believe that his point is to rectify and correct our legal system, where the guilty go free and the innocent are imprisoned, and bring in justice.

Please pray and ask the Lord for the grace to love your enemies and then He can use YOU to help those who sin.

Yes, Jose, the age of Caiaphas is upon us in the United States. Some bishops are in fact courageous, and some opposed the Dallas Charter. A few even read These Stone Walls quietly in the background. Let’s pray for them, and we can even be angry with them. I am. But we must not hate them. Cowardice is a flaw from which we must be rescued by the Holy Spirit.
With thanks and blessings, Father Gordon.

Thank you, Sharon. Marsha Clark is still living and every now and then I see an interview with her. FOX has never repeated the format but it was on their Broadcast Division and not their News Division. Sadly, Ms. Clark approached me in 1998, four years after my trial. Four years later, in 2002, came the big national explosion that swept the country out of Boston with ancient accusations against priests. Then the U.S. Bishops invited SNAP members to address their conference in Dallas, and since then few in the media have had the courage to revisit this story. The sole exception was Dorothy Rabinowitz at The Wall Street Journal. There is always hope that sooner or later the media will examine the story of falsely accused priests, but it will only come from the right, a minority in U.S. media. As Dorothy has written in her book, the news media with a bias toward the left does not wish to ever be seen questioning someone’s claim of victimhood. That would be a sacrilege. God bless you, Sharon.
Father Gordon

Oh Father Gordon……I’ve only just read the first two paragraphs……and my heart, heavy as metal, just dropped to the floor. God bless and comfort you and wake you from this current nightmare. This is the year of mercy…so I do ask Him; LORD, HAVE MERCY.

Father Gordon, I will get back, again, after gaining more composure and finish reading this living nightmare. I am so very sorry that this has happened, and is still, happening. NO ONE should have to live this. NO ONE! Especially, God’s Own!!

Dear Helen, especially God’s own, only begotten Son lived this. Unjust judgement, betrayal by friends, jury tampering, false witnesses. What a wonder, one week prior, they wanted Our Lord to take the title of their king. Sometimes I can’t help but think that our greatest fall in our own land, as Catholics, was the embrace that we had arrived at some level of worldly importance and that it was acceptable to mock the Holy Father openly in his affirmation of Catholic teaching in Humanae Vitae. We had arrived in education and politics and, in turn, the Holy Father gave us a Cross and so many rebelled. How Our Lord makes all things new, the worst of times become the best of times, for they are the times that make great saints! St. Maximilian Kolbe, pray for us!

Cathy makes a very good point here. Sometimes the accommodations demanded of Catholics are outrageous and seldom reciprocated. A good example took place last week. After the lifting of U.S. sanctions against Iran, the Iranian President went to Rome to negotiate billion dollar trade agreements with the Italian government. On his schedule was a visit to a Rome museum. The Italian government ordered all the nude statues to be covered up in deference to the Iranian President’s Islamic faith. I could not help but recall Maplethorpe’s depiction of the crucified Christ in a bottle of human urine that was prominently displayed in art museums in the United States over the strenuous objection of Catholic leaders.